20 Books I Loved in 2025 & Think You Should Read in 2026

I read 195 books in 2025. More books than ever, since I began tracking, and part of that increase is continuing to cut down on other types of entertainment. Some of it was being better at DNF’ing books (35!) that didn’t work for me.

Queer books and romances remain the strongest genres, especially in their crossovers. I challenged myself to read (or DNF) at least 90 books that I’d acquired by or earlier than December 31, 2024. I beat that goal at 140. But I did get 142 new-to-me books last year, and this year, I’m going to read 98, which is that 142 minus how many of those 2025 books I read last year.

I paired a lot of my physical or ebook reading with borrowing library audiobooks. It meant I could continue the journey while cooking, gardening, doing chores, and going on walks. (Though I am also a huge podcast listener.)

50 books (a little less than 25%) of the books I read I rated 5/5 stars. My average book rating was 3.72 stars. So many of the books on my list of 20 are by, about, and for trans people. That 5th star in the 5/5 star system for me is all about how the story resonated, and it’s not surprising that queer stories often evoke more feelings from me.

But also, whether trans, queer, disabled, and/or BIPOC, these authors likely had to fight more to get their stories into the world and to write about people like themselves, which means we’re often getting the very best stories. When I think about equity, it would be me reviewing 195 books by trans authors and them averaging 3.72 stars: the freedom to be mediocre too.

I reread Lothaire (Immortals After Dark #11) by Kresley Cole, enjoying it on audio, and the book still slaps. My top authors were Susan Elizabeth Phillips (5 books), P. Djèlí Clark (4 books), and Adriana Herrera, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Marjorie M. Liu, and Sana Takeda (3 books each). Anything with a 🎧 means I listened to the audiobook only.

PS — Obviously, it’s the end of March, but I had other things on my plate, so get back on your 2026 reading goals with my recommendations!

My Top 20 Books from 2025

20. With Love, from Cold World by Alicia Thompson

Genre: cis bi man/het woman contemporary romance

This captures of feeling of being in your 20s and then suddenly realizing that, “oh, shit, I am an adult.” This was so romantic with simple, regular life magic.

19. Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun

Genre: cis lesbian contemporary romance

I cried a lot. But loved the love stories, even, if at the beginning, I wanted to curse the main characters for being so immature. Cochrun knows how to be funny and break your heart at the same time.

18. Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Genre: future dystopian sci-fi

What a punch of a story. When people gush over Pacific Rim (a film I did watch), this was the bisexual chaos revenge energy I wanted from it.

17. Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky

Genre: future dystopian sci-fi fantasy comics

I went from being a Lubchansky fan to a Lubchansky stan. You can see this world unfolding from where we are now, but also the absurdity is cranked perhaps even higher than our current world, which seems wild.

16. American Hippo (River of Teeth #0.5-2) by Sarah Gailey

Genre: historical fantasy novella and short stories

Every single character — including the hippos — was so tightly and uniquely drawn. I just want to watch Gailey’s brain work. The main novella was a perfect heist story.

Gailey’s The Echo Wife was #7 on my 2023 list!

15. The Second Safest Mountain by Otava Heikkilä

Genre: horror sci-fi comics

This played with gender and transness in incredibly unexpected ways. I’m a huge fan of Heikkilä’s work. Compared to his other graphic novels, this used color in fascinating and brilliant ways.

14. Legends of the Leaf: Unearthing the Secrets to Help Your Plants Thrive by Jane Perrone

Genre: nonfiction botany

A lot of plant books don’t have more information than Wikipedia, especially around common houseplants. Perrone digs into the history of 25 common houseplants — what they were used for by Indigenous people and how they were brought into cultivation — and a little about their biology and why they remain popular. I learned new things!

13. An Island Princess Starts a Scandal (Las Léonas #2) by Adriana Herrera

Genre: cis lesbian 1880s Parisian historical romance

Latina lesbians causing chaos in 1880s Paris! Sign me up. Also, so sexy. No one writes steamy lesbian sex like Herrera.

12. A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander

Genre: trans gay man/bi man Regency England historical romance

Historical romances are really rocking my world. As my 4th read by Alexander, this one takes the cake as their best book (so far) with a delightful use of a tight single character point of view.

11. A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers

Genre: future utopian sci-fi

Cozy, gentle with life lessons about purpose and finding the unexpected. Chambers is one of those authors who weaves philosophy and deep themes into her books seamlessly. Seriously, a marvel!

10. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Genre: memoir (mostly set in 2000s and 2010s in Los Angeles) 🎧

A kick in the teeth and as bold as the title suggests! We are all glad McCurdy’s mom is dead. I’m slightly too old to have engaged with McCurdy as a child star in children’s TV, so I’m here to say that yes, this is still incredibly engaging and meaningful.

9. The Bride (Lairds’ Fiancées #1) by Julie Garwood

Genre: cishet historical medieval English and Scottish romance (published in 1989)

I cannot stop thinking about this medieval romance published in 1989! It lays down a blueprint for so much of the genre, but stands brightly on its own through time, which is what Classics should be defined as. Also, so funny!

8. A Master of Djinn (The Dead Djinn Universe #1) by P. Djèlí Clark

Genre: 1920s Egyptian historical fantasy mystery

Clark’s execution of this universe is astonishing. He takes so many things that sound great — 1920s Egypt! Awesome women kicking ass! Egyptian mythology! Djinn being real! Disrupting the Western power structures! Lady lesbian detective in a sharp suit! — and pulls them together in a wonder weave of a plot with impeccable world-building and characterization.

7. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Genre: contemporary fantasy and sci-fi

This is a cozy story about violin playing and queerness that also has incredible stakes of selling your soul and possibly ending the universe. Plus, donuts! All those things are true at once.

6. A Bloomy Head (Regency Cheesemakers #1) by J. Winifred Butterworth

Genre: cis woman/trans man Regency historical romance

Murders! Surly French people versus stodgy English people! Hurt/comfort! Cheese making! Slow burn romance! Trans men defining themselves! Go read this.

5. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Genre: literary fiction (published in 1974)

Baldwin wastes not a single word. A beautiful novel about wrongful incarceration with incredibly complex topics around race, poverty, gender, and generational and cultural differences. Your heart will fall over for the love of Tish and Fonny.

Baldwin’s Collected Essays: Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays was my #1 read in 2022!

4. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

Genre: memoir graphic novel (set in the mid-2000s in Alberta, Canada)

The tension Beaton builds is unrelenting. In the true story of her times in the Alberta Oil Sands, very little often happens in her day, but every interaction, change, and beat matters in this dangerous work for people, especially women, and devastating to the environment and Indigenous people and other locals.

3. Wild Rain (Women Who Dare #2) by Beverly Jenkins

Genre: cishet Reconstruction American historical romance

Spring is an unforgettable heroine. Ms. Bev never pulls a punch in her stories, and I loved the contrast between Spring as a hardened horse woman living on her own in Wyoming and her love interest Garrett, a journalist who has retained more soft edges than her. Perfection.

2. Ain’t She Sweet? by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Genre: cishet contemporary romance (published 2004) 🎧

When the drunk men stand outside at night to holler Sugar Beth’s name, you know that SEP is writing a book no one else could. Sugar Beth is a graduate class in writing and redeeming an “unlikeable” heroine who does a truly horrific thing at the end of high school, and then finds herself “back home,” broke, and feeling like a failure over a decade later to come face-to-face with the man she ruined.

Phillips’ Kiss An Angel was my 4-star headworm in 2024!

1. Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn’t My Rapist by Cecilia Gentili

Genre: memoir (mostly set in the 1970s in Argentina)

Rest in Power, Saint Cecilia. I’ve never read a memoir structured like this. Gentili blares the power of her story as a trans femme child through it. She reads and loves the people of her hometown who shaped her into the woman she became (for better or worse). If only she had lived long enough to tell the rest.

4-star rated book I cannot get out of my head

Spent by Alison Bechdel

Genre: autofiction contemporary graphic novel

This made me laugh out loud so many times. Such a niche view into a type of queer middle age that I both resemble and don’t, but it’s always a good time to lovingly make fun of ourselves. Bechdel’s balance is amazing. The sauna scene is one of the most hilarious setups I’ve ever read in a comic book.